Fishman busts the Scalper Kings

From Phish.net:

Four individuals have been arrested on a 43-count indictment related to wire fraud and a host of related crimes perpetrated in wildly successful attempts to siphon tickets from TicketMaster, MusicToday, LiveNation and others, for resale through ticket brokers. Wiseguys and its various fronts and subsidiaries stole hundreds of thousands of tickets per year over the last 5 years, including approximately 20% of seats for the Phish reunion shows at Hampton in March 2009 (see page 46). Internal emails among Wiseguy employees indicate that the thieves had cornered the market on illegitimate access to online ticket sales and, in their words, monopolized access to the best available seats. The indictment was filed by US Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

From nj.com:

Lowson's lawyer, Mark Rush, said Wiseguy Tickets simply devised an ingenious way to buy tickets for brokers, who resold them to fans. The company moved 1.5 million tickets between 2002 and 2009, making more than $25 million in profit, authorities said.


That's over $3 million profit every year, for seven years. I hope these guys get all their money taken from them, and it is donated to the organization I plan on forming-F.A.N.S (Fans About Not Scalping), because, quite frankly, I would rather sit in the rain outside a venue than pay over face value for a ticket, based on principle alone.
I find it criminal that these people do this, and they need to be stopped. Unfortunately, the good people of the world have not yet been able to indict LiveNation and Ticketmaster for being evil just yet, but I think help is on the way.